St. Bernadette kneeling at the Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes

STEPHEN IPPOLITO writes from Australia:

As I look at the priests processing at Lourdes to model the importance of “fun” to the faithful I’m reminded of how I once numbered among my legal clients a couple who operated a small “dating” agency. They mused to me once over coffee and biscuits (never pizza) that the aspect of their business that struck them most forcefully was how, counter-intuitively, the broader a client was in painting a word-profile, the fewer enquiries he or she would draw.

It emerged that most of their clients strove to appear as all things to all men.

The two most popular terms people used to describe their personalities, far and away, were  “fun-loving” and “non-judgmental.” Likewise, in specifying the attributes of those they’d like to meet these people would take care to eliminate absolutely no one and no form of behavior. No one especially wanted to be seen as serious because serious is boring.

However, it was those few clients who bucked the temptation to alienate no one by appearing as all things to all men and instead put their own unique details and those they sought “out there” who actually attracted the most responses.

The lesson I draw from this is that when you stand for nothing in particular, believe in nothing in particular and are looking for no one in particular then you ought not to be surprised when no one’s gaze lingers on you. This truth applies to a church as much to the lovelorn.

Loving fun and being non-judgmental have their place, but they are surely no true Catholic’s primary descriptors and surely have no place at the centre of Catholic worship.

The Marian apparitions at Lourdes in 1858 were meant to deepen our knowledge of the divine nature which, as modeled by Our Lady’s behavior, is dignified, solemn and serious. Yes, the miracles were also, as you say, quite sublime.

The clip you feature with its prancing priests trying to be all things to all men by placing fun and frivolity and childishness at the heart of what is afterall an event personally commanded by Our Lady, (“Go, tell the priests to come here in procession and to build a chapel here” – March 2nd, 1858), is at odds with the reality of what happened at Lourdes in 1858. How so?

Consider that Our Lady took care to appear arrayed in very dignified garb. Her manner of speaking to Bernadette was always dignified and courteous and formal.

Consider that Bernadette was but a child herself in 1858 but Our Lady nevertheless made no concession to childishness by seeking to indulge or amuse her. On the contrary she granted Bernadette the compliment of addressing her as a young woman – with agency. Indeed, it is important that on her first few appearances nothing at all was said but instead they prayed together silently honoring God through the rosary.

Consider how early on Our Lady elects to eschew the various informal forms of address she might have used to Bernadette and which would have been justified by both Bernadette’s youth and low social rank and instead  opts for the dignified and extremely courteous address: “would you do me the kindness” of returning over the fortnight. In the same vein, Our Lady chose not to sugar coat her message to Bernadette but to treat her as an adult by bluntly informing her: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the other” .

Likewise, there is nothing fun or trivial or light-hearted ( I like your term “goofy”), in the rather harsh actions Our Lady commands of Bernadette – all of which to many Catholic thinkers evoke the symbolism of the prophet Isaiah’s “suffering servant” of God such as: by causing her to move about on her knees at the rear of the cave; kissing the unclean earth in what was then a garbage dump for the village; digging in the mud with her hands; drinking muddy water; eating the bitter grass; smearing her face with mud so as to appear mad thereby evoking slaps and ridicule from onlookers; and finally through allowing Bernadette to suffer greatly in subsequent years from painful leg ulcers and yet to feel herself not meant for the relief that the spring would have afforded her at Massabielle.

None of this was fun, frivolous or light-hearted at all. It was, to the contrary, a deadly serious business with a very young girl chosen to be at its heart. How awful for us Catholics alive today that a young untutored girl responded to Our Lady’s message with far more adult dignity and respect than do our priests.

I agree with you that fun and light-heartedness are not of themselves improper or to be condemned. It is just that to color the procession of Lourdes as about our own fun and amusement is inconsistent with Bernadette’s lived experience at that time and Our Lady’s important message.

Please follow and like us: